Car Sharing Is Changing How We Consume

On July 21 of 2012 Car2Go came to Alberta. Specifically it came to 93 square kilometers of Calgary's inner core. The on-demand car sharing service charges $0.38 a minute to use one of its 300 bright blue and white Smart Cars. With over 300 of them it's easy to find and book a car using a smart phone app. Swipe your member card across a data card reader located behind the wind screen and off you go.

"People have responded amazingly. They've embraced it with open arms within the first 60 days for Car2Go in Calgary we had 15,000 people sign up right away," says location manager Jon Wycoco.

The smartphone wow factor is not to be underestimated. Using the app to find the nearest car and even being given walking directions to the nearest one was pretty impressive. The app even tells you how much gas is left in the tank. Run by Daimler, the group behind Mercedes Benz, Car2Go is also in Toronto, Vancouver and 14 other cities around the world.

Collaborative Consumption

Car sharing is the most outwardly popular expression of a simple idea that's changing how we consume. It's called collaborative consumption.

Did you know a typical power drill will only be used 12 to 13 minutes in its entire lifetime? It's much the same for the average private vehicle -- it's parked 23 hours a day.

In an absurd way this inefficient use of resource is actually kind of funny. Especially when all we really want is a hole drilled or to visit a friend's house without having to take the bus.

Collaborative consumption has been popularized by author and researcher Rachel Botsman in a famous TED talk and book What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.

"I don't want the DVD; I want the movie it carries. I don't want a clunky answering machine; I want the message it saves. I don't want a CD; I want the music it plays. In other words, I don't want stuff; I want the experience it fulfills," says Botsman.

"One of the biggest selling points for Car2Go is the convenience factor. You can take a car from Point A to Point B and you only pay by the minute. So it's an on-demand system that allows you to use a Car2Go vehicle for parking, fuel, maintenance and insurance are all included in the rate," says Jon Wycoco, the location manager for Car2Go in Calgary.

Mobility and convenience -- that's what a car offers and boy, do we Canadians love our cars.

"Indeed, for sheer mind-numbing, soul-destroying aggravation, traffic in our largest cities can compete with any in the developed world," says Coyne. According to a Toronto Board of Trade study Toronto's rank in commuting times compared to 19 major cities was dead last. Other Canadian cities didn't do so hot either. Montreal was 18th, Vancouver 14th, Calgary 13th, Halifax 10th.

And congestion isn't just aggravating it's bad for your economic health. A 2006 Transport Canada study put a number on the cost of congestion -- $6.7 billion. A 2008 estimate from Toronto's regional transportation authority Metrolinx pegged the cost of congestion at $6 billion just for the region alone. All of that wasted time stuck in traffic means a ton of wasted energy and unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.

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Carsharing and Car2Go

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John Wycoco of Car2Go shows the 93 square kilometer home range of Car2Go Calgary. Members can pick up or drop off a Car2Go smart car anywhere in the inner core of Calgary. Photo David Dodge

John Wycoco of Car2Go demonstrates how easy it is to find a car and swipe your member card to open it up. Photo David Dodge

John Wycoco of Car2Go Calgary swipes his member card, the car opens, he checks out the car and then off he goes with his on-demand car rental. Photo David Dodge

John Wycoco hops in one of the 300 Smart Cars that Car2Go has available in the inner core of Calgary for rental by the minute. The company also operates in Vancouver and Toronto in Canada and 14 other cities worldwide. Photo David Dodge

Car2Go Calgary attracted 15,000 members in its first two months of operation in Calgary. Worldwide the car share company operated by Daimler has 275,000 members. Photo David Dodge

Finding a car is easy! Go to the Car2Go website click on a car on the map that's close to you, confirm the reservation and then follow the map to the car. Photo David Dodge

Car2Go has added a new transportation option for Calgarians. LRT and carsharing are both increasingly popular as parking spaces get harder to find and traffic snarls in the city core. Photo David Dodge

Finding a Car2Go car on your smart phone is as easy as downloading the free app and clicking on a car on the map near you. If you are in the core of Calgary chances are a car will pop up near by. This car is a little far away from us because we were in the wrong city when we took this screen capture of the app. Photo David Dodge

Just click on the free Car2Go app and a map showing all of the available cars pops up and you simply click on a car to reserve it, and then follow the map to pick up the car. Photo David Dodge

Car sharing can liberate people from owning a car altogether or stop them from buying a second car. And some smaller studies have even shown that car sharing can spark a change in behaviour.

In a 2009 Zipcar study the company took 250 self-described car addicts and had them give up their keys and walk, use public transportation and use their Zipcar membership only as a last resort for an entire month. Not only did the participants cumulatively drop over 400 pounds in total, but over 100 people did not want their keys back.

Car sharing is also a more effective use of all of the steel and energy needed to manufacture the car in the first place. The less time it sits in a garage and the more time it's being used for its actual purpose the better.

And if you're worried about your transportation budget car sharing is a simple way to save. The average costs of car ownership in Canada come to about $7,500 according to the Canadian Automobile Association. That's enough money to drive a Car2Go smart car 54 minutes a day, every day of the year. And that's at the most expensive, per minute rate.

This smart, effective approach to transportation is spreading across the country like a happy little virus. Car2Go is in also in Toronto and Vancouver. Both Toronto and Vancouver are home to three different car sharing companies. Even Ottawa and Kingston have a car sharing service.

Have you used a car share? How was your experience? Do you want one in your city after reading this article? Let us know in the comments.